(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to wet chemical processing of cotton prior to ginning. More specifically, this invention relates to instituting a wet chemical treatment to provide ease of removal of the lint from the cottonseed.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
OSHA Cotton Dust Standards as well as present and future problems with energy and byssinosis emphasize the need for new approaches to removal of lint from cottonseed. Studies on byssinosis have indicated that the active ingredient in cotton dust, which probably comes from the bract, is water soluble, filterable, non-volatile at relatively high temperature, and nondialyzable. A water rinse of the ginned lint might solve the byssinosis-dust problem by reducing the dust and removing the active byssinosis ingredient from subsequent fiber and textile operations. Because OSHA recognizes this thoroughly washed cotton is exempt from the standards.
When cotton lint is removed from the seed, either by hand or commercial ginning, the point of breakage is at the epidermis, in the immediate vicinity of the elbow. The fiber base below the surface of the constricted region of the shank remains after the fiber is removed. The literature concludes that fibers of cultivated cottons are characterized by some type of weak place in the vicinity of the fiber elbow, and that the weak place is probably due to non-visible differences in wall structure.
It has also been reported that the moisture content of lint during ginning influences lint quality. The quality improves as moisture content is increased, subject to the limitation of wet fibers clogging the gin. It has also been pointed out that a wet gin produced a fiber distribution array with more longer fibers and fewer short (damaged) fibers than did the saw gin, thus significantly improving lint quality.
The Prior Art is thoroughly explored by C. P. Wade and S. P. Rowland, the present inventors, in their disclosure of the present invention in the paper "The Cotton Fiber-Seed Bond: the Weakening Effects of Enzymes and Wetting Agents", which appears in the TRANSACTIONS of the ASAE (Vol. 22, No. pp. 1458-1462) November-December 1979 issued which was mailed on Feb. 29, 1980.